What is maternal deaths?
Every day more than 800 women die because they become pregnant. About 303,000 women’s lives are lost each year due to complications during pregnancy or after giving birth. The worst affected are women living in poverty or in areas affected by a humanitarian crisis.
Call for action
CAbout 60 percent of all maternal mortality takes place in situations of crisis and disaster. For every woman who dies, there are between 20 and 30 women who suffer injuries, infections or suffer from disability
Maternal mortality is due to women’s generally low status and lack of empowerment. Unequal power structures in society reduce the ability of girls and young women to control their own sexuality and lives.
Every year, 40 million women give birth to children without the help of a present midwife or other caregiver. Of the women who become pregnant in low- and middle-income countries, four out of ten receive no health care at all during pregnancy.
Source: Unicef.se & RFSU
Development goals
Eezer shares the UN development goals.
Vision
To strongly decrease maternal mortality in accordance to the UN sustainability goal 3.1 by
- impact root causes in womens local environment that affect maternal health.
- affect national health systems and key actors that influence the maternal health situation.
Goals
To develop and implement secure and cost efficient transportaion solutions for pregnant women. By:
- Having 3000 operational carriages (motorcycle ambulances) in Africa south of Sahara before 2030.
- Carry through 3,000,000 medical transportations up to 2030.
Eezers concept
To get from the home to a clinic to receive qualified help in a cheap and secure way, is a great challenge in the African countryside. Many women die because they do not reach the clinic in time.
The strategy and change theory of the Eezer Initiative to affect change in the maternal mortality issue, is founded in “The Three Delays Model” (www.maternityworldwide.org). The second group “Delay in reaching” is the primary entry for The Eezer Initiative. This does not rule out activities within the first and third group.
The Three Delays Model show three bottlenecks for the pregnant woman.
- The delay at home about whether to seek care or not (where cultural factors, the husbands decision-making role etc have great weight)
- The delay of treatment due to procuring transportation, and the transportation itself on bad roads over long distances.
- The delay of treatment when the patient has reached the clinic or hospital.
The Eezer Initiatives entrypoint in the maternal mortality issue is the second delay. We develop solutions for secure and cheap transportations between home and clinic.
The motorcycle ambulances
Our concept is to use materials and technology that is available locally. Small, cheap motorcycles are presently available everywhere in Africa, and the material to towing devices and carriages can often be found at the local market. And scale up the concept.
Products and services
- Ambulance carriages (called ambulances, together with motorcycles)
- Tracking system
- Training
Development
The development of the EEZER Initiative’s products and services takes place primarily in collaboration between individuals, companies and organizations, where each party bears its own costs. In some cases, services can be purchased as part of the development work.
Patent
The designs are not patented and we look positively to other players inspired to develop their own solutions based on our designs or use our technical concepts.
Production
In the long term, we want to see small production and training centers emerge in the various countries close to the end users. In 2020, the main production will take place in Nairobi, partly of complete ambulances but also of “pre-fabrication packages” where sections of the ambulances are transported to another location for final assembly.
In 2020, we see that some production of “pre-fabrication packages” can take place in Sweden for further transport to West Africa.
For Burundi, we work to send down a container from Sweden with all materials (including, wheels, shock absorbers, etc.) to 50 ambulances for final assembly in Bujumbura. With end use in Burundi and DR Congo.
Implementation
In the long term, we work for the “market” to run the transport business with government and private actors as the engine in the business, where ambulances are available to buy on the market. In the short term, other players and financiers need to contribute capital, drive development and open up the market.
In 2020, we will work directly with local partners such as local clinics, organizations and private actors. We will also develop partnerships with larger organizations that have the potential to develop and implement the concept on a larger scale.
Data collection and analysis
The tracking and monitoring system that is being developed will be launched and used in operation in 2020. This data collection will form the basis for how we develop the ambulances efficiency and strategic locations. For example, the ambulances can be followed to see which routes and to which destinations they are used.
Training
As we get operators who use the ambulances in their daily operations, experience and learning will arise which is the key to the concept’s long-term effectiveness. This knowledge needs to be collected and spread to the actors among themselves by meeting physically for the exchange of experience, but also via eg social media such as instructional videos on Youtube etc.
Some of the UN development goals that Eezer contributes to:
Development phases
The long term goal is that every woman on the african contryside shall be able to get to a clinic, to give birth in a secure and cost efficient way.
Phase 1 – 30 ambulances
In the pilot phase we build 30 ambulances and lend to as many different types of organizations as possible. This to create knowledge about how the ambulances works and how the operational activities can be developed. The financing takes place exclusively from Sweden.
Phase 2 – 300 ambulances
The second phase will start during 2020 and focus will be on:
- Development relationships with local actors.
- Steady production in several production sites.
- Expanded sales and distribution.
- Priority countries are Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Tchad, DR Kongo.
- Continued development of the ambulances in regards to safety, comfort and durability.
- Data collection and analysis regarding the use of the ambulances will create the basis for the continued strategic development.
- Financing will mainly take place from Sweden.
- Local financing strategies will be developed and implemented on a small scale
- Activities to strengthen local demand will be implemented.
Phase 3 – 3 000 ambulances
By 2030, 3000 ambulances will been produced and be in regular operation. Independent production and distribution centers will be in place at strategic locations to meet demand
Phase 4 – 30 000 ambulances
During the fourth phase, “Eezer” will become an accepted concept throughout Sub-Saharan Africa for motorcycle-based medical transports in the same way that Jeep is a concept for four-wheel drive cars. There will be a pronounced demand and supply of equipage will be met by a large number of distributors. Financing will be managed locally.
